FPI / August 15, 2024
Geostrategy-Direct
By Richard Fisher
As the Chinese government was basking in the glory of its athletes’ 40-gold medal performance at the July 26 to Aug. 11 Paris 2024 Olympic games, touting its “civilization,” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was crushing the same in Venezuela, endorsing Dictator Nicholas Maduro’s stolen July 28 election.
Peking University’s Zhang Ziwu was quoted on Aug. 12 in Chinese state media Global Times saying, "The development of sports is closely associated with a country's development level, economy and degree of civilization. For example, a starving person would have no chance of practicing freestyle scooter."
But as the Olympics were just starting, on July 28 Venezuela held its six-year term presidential elections in which the government-controlled National Election Council declared 11-year incumbent Nicolas Maduro the winner, gaining 51.9 percent of the vote and a third term, whereas the Organization of American States, and media like the Associated Press and The Washington Post declared the government’s victory a statistical improbability.
Ten polls taken from April 28 to July 20 had the leading opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzales winning by 50 to 64 percent.
One year before, the Cuban Communist-trained Maduro had barred the popular opposition leader Maria Corino Machado from election participation and the Maduro regime committed scores of incidents of violence and intimidation against its opponents.
On Aug. 1, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was "overwhelming evidence" that Gonzales had won, and afterwords called for a peaceful transition of power.
This after massive and violent protests started on July 29 in Caracas and spread to other Venezuelan cities.
Also on July 29, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lin Jian congratulated Maduro on his victory.
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